Sia - This Is Acting
3 Stars
Acting this may be, but Sia is a more interesting prospect when she goes off-script.
29th January 2016
Album Reviews
Wet - Don’t You
4 Stars
Unflinchingly honest, Wet don’t specialise in happy endings, but they’re always telling a good story.
29th January 2016
Tuff Love - Resort
3 Stars
‘Resort’ allows their promise to be condensed into a single release, and if a debut album follows soon, the momentum could take them to big things.
29th January 2016
Your Friend - Gumption
3 Stars
It’s almost entirely a deeply interesting and cleverly crafted debut.
29th January 2016
MONEY - Suicide Songs
3 Stars
An album that’s excellent at times, but which arrived with preconceptions so strong that could never be matched.
29th January 2016
Basement - Promise Everything
4 Stars
‘Promise Everything’ epitomises all of the reasons fans were so eager for their hiatus to end.
29th January 2016
Milk Teeth - Vile Child
4 Stars
Milk Teeth are defined as much by days spent staring at the ceiling as those chugging cider down the park.
27th January 2016
Bloc Party - Hymns
3 Stars
It’s an unbalanced see-saw that defines ‘Hymns’.
27th January 2016
Ty Segall - Emotional Mugger
3 Stars
An album bursting with ideas, it too often disappears up its own — let’s say — ego.
22nd January 2016
Suede - Night Thoughts
4 Stars
Rooted in its own creation, ‘Night Thoughts’ is expansive and enchanting.
22nd January 2016
NZCA Lines - Infinite Summer
4 Stars
‘Infinite Summer’ is a beast that demands expansive concert halls and expectant crowds.
22nd January 2016
Eleanor Friedberger - New View
3 Stars
‘New View’ is the most self-assured realisation of Friedberger’s delicately eloquent musical talent.
22nd January 2016
Tindersticks - The Waiting Room
3 Stars
You have to recognise it as Staples’ strongest set of songs for a good long while.
22nd January 2016
Fat White Family - Songs For Our Mothers
1 Stars
Nothing to see here.
21st January 2016
Chairlift - Moth
3 Stars
Chairlift have found themselves creating something far more barmy, bold and exhilarating.
21st January 2016
Savages - Adore Life
4 Stars
Placing love on the surgeon’s table, and dissecting it, they’re every bit as mindbogglingly ambitious.
20th January 2016
Panic! At The Disco - Death of a Bachelor
4 Stars
It’s hard not to bowled over by Brendon Urie’s efforts yet again.
15th January 2016
Mystery Jets - Curve Of The Earth
4 Stars
A magic that has endured.
15th January 2016
Daughter - Not To Disappear
5 Stars
Daughter’s signature is in how they balance the harshest of subject matters with groundbreaking beauty.
15th January 2016
Hinds - Leave Me Alone
4 Stars
True and proud of every ingredient making up their early existence, Hinds create a blueprint in how not to give a fuck.
8th January 2016
David Bowie - Blackstar
4 Stars
‘Blackstar’ seems to be him giving everything, allowing all of his creative impulses to flourish.
7th January 2016
Pusha T - Darkest Before The Dawn: The Prelude
4 Stars
Pusha T has so much more to offer than before
4th January 2016
Coldplay - A Head Full of Dreams
2 Stars
For a record about breaking ground and finding a new, happier place, where’s the catharsis?
16th December 2015
Archy Marshall - ‘A New Place 2 Drown’
4 Stars
Like a post-watershed episode of Skins without the plot-tying happy ending.
11th December 2015
Featuring Yard Act, Death Cab For Cutie, Graham Coxon, Maisie Peters and more.